Louis Lassen's small lunch wagon of 1895 grew into Louis' Lunch, the hamburger restaurant that claims to be the first to serve hamburgers and the oldest continuously operated hamburger restaurant in the United States. It began as a small lunch wagon in 1895 when Louis Lassen opened it, and was one of the first places in the U.S. to serve steak sandwiches. According to Louis' Lunch, the hamburger itself was created here in 1900 when a customer hurriedly asked for a lunch to go.
In 1917 Louis moved the business into a square brick building that had once been a tannery; later, in 1975, the restaurant was moved four blocks down to 261 Crown Street. Remarkably, hamburgers are still made on the original cast iron vertical gas broilers from 1898, and the toast is made in a 1929 Savory Appliance Radiant Gas Toaster. The building is a New Haven landmark.
The story of Louis Lassen—born Ludvig Lassen—is threaded through this place: his small lunch wagon grew into a city institution whose claim to fame endures. Inside, cast iron vertical gas broilers from 1898 still cook every hamburger, and a 1929 Savory Appliance Radiant Gas Toaster still makes the toast.